(s)Aint
by BleedingHeartsoftheWorldUnite
Summary: The hardest thing in life is love, because it seems like every time you think you fall in love with someone, they always seem to love someone else! Why can't it ever be easy? Why does the heart always have to be your deadliest enemy? Various pairings. Some graphic content. Possible high T/low M for later chapters.
1. Prince Dry Balls

Stretched out on top of the massive mausoleum, a spear stabbed through his torso, Marshall Lee was slowly bleeding to death as the sun was rising, the only things protecting him being Cake, the magical cat, and Fionna's mercy. Assuming that she had any in her little red heart, all warm and gooey and scarlet... Alright, he knew that she did, but it was fun to tease, even when she couldn't hear the thoughts in his head.

"Oh, this is bad guys, this is really bad." He turned his face away as the sun peeked over the Candy Mountains, the rays blistering at his skin, causing it to bubble.

As it sizzled like bacon, Fionna rushed to his side, Cake elongating to shadow him, the blonde exclaiming, "Marshall, come on, you gotta be ok!"

He coughed dramatically, half laughing, eyes remaining closed as the time drew closer, "I think this is it for me, Fionna. So why don't you just admit it? You're in love with me."

She gasped, dropping her head, "I...I get that you flirt with me all the time, and its funny or whatever," Fionna looked up excitedly, her hands in the air before slamming against her bunny hat, tears in her eyes, "But you're doing this now?! What are you trying to do to my head?!" He looked at her in shock as she went on, "You think that I have some little crush on you? Well, for however long we've got left, for once, drop it, you freak!"

Seeing just how upset she was, he jumped up, catching her by surprise, pulling the shaft from his chest, "Faking it, faking it!" He pulled open his shirt, showing her the sweets he stole from Gumball earlier, "Ok, my shirt is filled with crème puffs."

Cake let out a sigh, "Oh, goodness."

"Glob, Fionna, you're like the realest person I've ever met." Marshall Lee wiped his ebony hair from his face so he could look at her better, inadvertently creating a more perfect target for Fionna when she struck him, leaving a bright red mark upon his undead flesh. "Ah," He held his face, "my cheek meet!"

Holding her fists at the ready, Fionna merely laughed as new tears streamed down her rosy, living cheeks.

"Quit clownin', Fionna," He panicked, backing away from her, only to hear her laugh back at him in a crazed fashion, "F...Fionna?"

Thinking he got what he deserved, Cake watched as Fionna continued to wail on the Vampire King, amounting to what would have been gratuitous off-screen violence, assuming that there had been some kind of screen where people could look in and watch their every move, as if their lives were some sort of sick show, their actions manipulated by some unseen puppet master. But that wasn't how it was, thank Glob, so Cake calmly watched every blow, occasionally flickering her tail in excitement as she listened to every shake and rattle of bone inside of his face as it cracked underneath Fionna's fist, crinkling her nose as she scrunched up her face in thought, debating about whether or not she should stop Fionna from completely annihilating their rather unhinged 'friend'.

While Fionna may have stricken up some sort of non-dislike for the vampire, that didn't mean that she automatically had to like him, and from her perspective, that day was a long ways off, if it even happened at all. How anyone could like Marshall Lee was a complete bafflement to her, unless you only counted him as a musical act, in which case Cake would admit that he was pretty math. But even saying that, Cake did know of one other person besides Fionna that liked the Vampire King, and she hoped with all of her kitty heart that the same fate would not befall her best friend and little sister...

**Chapter One: Prince Dry Balls **

Climbing down the ladder, offended from his encounter with that infantile delinquent and slightly hurt that Fionna didn't immediately side with him, injury was added to insult when he slipped on the ladder - even though it was raining, it was still a very un-princely thing to do, so as he returned to the warmth of Fionna and Cake's tree house, alone, it was with even pinker cheeks. At least he was by himself, so no one was there to see him glubb up like that, nor were they there to witness his tantrum as he tried to overthrow a jar full of preservatives he had made for Fionna so she could save the remains of her more awesome triumphs, and fail epically in this endeavor. Or so he thought...

Stemming from nothingness in a blaze of white light, the golden tendrils blooming outwards like a flower before dissipating in a clear mist, a girl with a countenance to indicate that she was somewhere around his own age appeared behind him, her hand over her mouth as she tried to stifle her embarrassing than being caught with his pants down, Gumball was draped over the top of the candy cork, his legs hanging in the air, feet dangling against the wooden floor. Why did he have to use such a large and sturdy jar?! Strolling up to the downed royal, the girl knelt down so that they were eye level, and she burst out laughing. Oh, if only Marshall could see this!

Narrowing his eyes at the girl, he scowled, "Hem, a little help?"

That only caused her to laugh harder, "Ha! I think that you're doing a fabulous job on your own."

Muttering to himself about her, he pulled himself erect with some effort, dusting himself off before looking up at her, mouth falling agape as he saw her snooping around the place, looking through the various vials and bottles that lined the shelves, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Going through their things," She answered as if it were the most obvious, natural thing in the world. Floating along on particle of light that looked like hundreds of fireflies, the girl picked up a little pink container with a heart-stopper, and uncorking it, she held it to her nose, "Love potion. I bet I know who you would use it on, Ball-man."

Cheeks flaming up, he slammed the lid back in place and tried to pry it out of her hands, "So help me if you do not let go of this potion!"

Sighing, she let go so suddenly that his last yank caused him to whack himself in the chest with his own hand, still firmly clutch around the vial, "You never let me have any fun! Prince Dry Balls! Yeah, that's what you are! You're Prince Dry Balls!" She chuckled, watching him as his squishy constitution began to shake and quiver in rage, "Oh, did I strike a nerve, Prince Dry Balls? Whatever will I do?!"

Even though he would have loved nothing more than to shove her away and out of his face, it was against his alignment to lay a finger on a girl, and besides, in moments like these, he couldn't help but to think of the little girl that she used to be, pitiful but with stars in her eyes, "You used to be so nice... What happened to you, Skyla?"

Taken more off guard by the tone of voice he was using, that it was as tender as if speaking to one of his young candy citizens, that there was a morose kind of curiosity just below the surface, she floated back to the ground. What had happened to her, he asked? Was it so impossible to just believe that time had changed her, that there had been nothing in her past to change her so drastically? But then again, it had been a mostly rhetorical question, hadn't it?

While it was a topic that she had seldom chose to speak of, there were some very well known parts of her story, and more parts of which were nothing more than rumor and myth, but right here, speaking with Gumball in this context, there was a part of her that wasn't into making it a joke, which probably had something to do with the fact that he had been so earnest when he asked her, "You know the story as well as anybody else..." But instead of with a suggestive smile or cruel smirk or any other kind of goof-ball expression, Skyla looked at him, her one visible eyes glowing a bright purple as it begged not to have this incident repeated, "I'm just a dirty little scarlet tart."

He didn't believe her, "No, you're not just some lady of the evening. I used to know you, Skyla, and I know that you aren't the kind of girl to-"

"'You used to know me'?" She repeated indignantly, "If that's so true, then where were you when I lost everything? Where were you when I had to pick up the pieces of my life? Don't pretend like you care about me, because at the end of the day, I know that there's only one person I can count on - Me."

Seeing that she was about to leave, he said the only thing he could think of to make her stay, although if she hadn't been his childhood friend, why he wanted to associate with someone like the girl she was pretending to be was beyond him, "Then what does that make Marshall Lee to you?"

Freezing in place, she looked over her shoulder at him, wondering how he could ask her something like that...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla is all on me. Title the property of Marilyn Manson and all legal right holders, and yadda yadda.

**Warning:** This story may or may not flirt with darker concepts, although at this time, even I'm not sure if it will, so the rating and material will be subject to change, but for now at least, I will say that it's a heavy "T". But maybe that's that my more protective nature, and difficulty in accepting that times are changing, that things happen at a much younger age now.

**A/N:** Alright, here's crack two at Adventure Time! The first one didn't pan out in the long run, but I feel that I'm a bit better of a writer now, so here's hoping that everything works out...


	2. To Mutilate a Princess's Hair

Something wasn't right, and by Glob, he was determined to figure out what was wrong! Leering at the picture in his hands, Finn the Human focused all of his awesome treasure seeking skills, taking in every last detail of the image on top of the page, from the stain glass windows to the silver doorknob on the front door, noting that every blade of grass was blowing with an eastern wind, and once he was absolutely positive that he had it saved in his domepeice, he stared at the bottom re-creation. Stain glass windows, silver doorknob in the shape of a rose, grass blowing in an eastern wind - wait a minute! The doorknob! Looking back and forth between the two, he realized that the first one was circular, not patterned after a flower! Ah-ha, take that stupid picture!

"Did you find it yet, Finn?" Beemo asked, wondering to himself if this particular puzzle wasn't too hard, and thus this game unbeatable.

Breaking into a wide grin that clearly showed his missing teeth, Finn almost sang out, "Did I find it? Beemo, this game is no match for the likes of an adventurer like me! I have the determination of a team of sled-dogs!"

Soaking in his victory of Beemo's latest puzzle creations, Finn's bear-hooded head popped upwards when he heard a knocking on the door. Throwing the controller aside, Beemo powering down after hours of being in use, Finn bolted to the door, eagerly waiting for this, for her to arrive. About to open the door, he paused when Jake mentally appeared before him, a sandwich in paw, "Hey man, whatcha doin'? I know you're in a hurry to see your lady, but you gotta freshen up first!"

"Oh, yeah." Finn raised his arms up and sniffed his armpit to make sure that there wasn't too much of a reek, and coming away not green around the gills, he decided that it was passable, so he went to open the door, "Thanks, bro!"

Giving him the thumbs up, mouth half-full of whole wheat bread, lettuce, tomato, salami, mustard, ketchup, peanut butter, and pickles, Jake replied before fading out, "No problem, brother." Gone for just a second, he came back, "Oh, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Huh?!" Finn looked around, but imaginary Jake was already gone, so he shrugged it off and opened the door, "Hey..." Seeing who was standing in the door, Finn let out one of his semi-girly screams, "Aeh!"

Turning her head sideways at the odd way she was greeted, a longer haired Flame Princess looked at Finn, "Are you alright?"

"Totes. I just wasn't expecting to see him..." He narrowed his eyes at the boy standing by the Flame Princess, "Hello, Skyler."

Wrapping his bare, baby-blue arm around the slightly shorter Flame Princess, a boy not so unlike the sky smirked at the adventurer, "'Sup, Finn?"

**Chapter Two: To Mutilate a Princess's Hair**

As a wise old monkey once said, the past can hurt, and there weren't many in the land that knew that better than Skyla, but her life hadn't always been so full of trial - She had been a princess, once, of a distant and reclusive kingdom somewhere in the neighborhood of the Cloud Kingdom. Lux, it was called, and it was ruled by a mighty huffy elemental known as Atmos, the Air King, and his wife, a light being known as Phota Synthesis, and together they governed with a strict fist; so strict, in fact, that even their own daughter was not exempt from the laws. But before her unfortunate brush with the wrong side of her father's rules, she had been a sweet girl with loving, doting parents...

Maybe six or seven and gowned in a frilly yellow dress only a shade or two darker than the sun, a much younger Skyla ran down the richly carpeted stairs of the Candy Castle, chased after by the young Prince Gumball (in even more ridiculous finery than what he currently wore, if that were even possible), neither paying too much attention to the business their parents had been speaking of, although when the voices became raised, the two did change from a cops and robbers type of game to being spies. But for today, for now, there was no yelling, so it was only a chase, and this time, it was Gumball's turn to capture Skyla.

"Get back here!" He shouted, tearing down the stairs two at a time, which his legs had been longer, it would have been three.

Looking back over her shoulder, she stuck her tongue out at him, "You gotta catch me first, Gummy Bear!"

Not looking where she was going as she rounded the corner, Skyla bumped headfirst into Peppermint Maid, the jolt causing her to pause just long enough for Gumball to reach his friend, but being so caught up in the game, he didn't see the maid, or that Skyla had stopped, so he slammed into her, sending all three of them flying back, his gum getting stuck in her hair, her hair in his gum. Tangled up together, they tumbled around, rolling off of the help, and getting more twisted than liquorice doing a tango as they went, somehow ended up back at the foot of the stairs. Shoving and pulling, yanking and jerking, both children started to cry because neither could move their head without upsetting the other. Sighing, Peppermint Maid set about trying to pry them apart, but they were stuck together like something that gets stuck together and can't unstick itself later.

"Oww, Gumball, stop moving your stupid head!" She wailed out, "Daddy, mommy!"

"My stupid head?!" He looked at her as if she had uttered the gravest of insults, "You're the butt that made us get this way!"

Hearing the combined cries of their children, both of their parents came running out of the meeting room a few doors down and Skyla's mother almost fainted when she saw the children, Gumball's father glaring over at Atmos, who instantly rounded in on the sovereign, "Is this your idea of hospitality? You let your boy assault our darling little princess?!"

"Hardly!" Gumball's mother pointed an accusatory finger at the visiting king, "I would dare to say that your 'precious little princess' started this roughhouse! Our little Gumball wouldn't have run wild if he had just been here by himself!"

Offended by the other queen, Skyla's mother stood up to her, her diminutive height almost too adorable to be taken seriously, "Obviously you care not for the fate of your kingdom, to be brandying about such harsh words to the parents of one of the only princesses in the land!"

Glancing between each other to see that they were agreement, the candy people were quick to apologize, "Forgive us, your most dignified excellencies - we were only frightened for the sake of our child, but as no harm as been done, clearly we have overreacted. Come, let us attend to this before returning to the terms of our proposition, shall we not?"

Pleased with this, Skyla's parents nodded in concurrence, turning at last to the children, both of whom continued to rustle around while their parents worked out the adult business, Gumball's parents yielding so quickly only to prevent a possible war, although they would only understand that years later. Working together, after maybe waiting for the five minutes it took Peppermint Maid to get the royal scissors, and as a show of good faith, the queens both cut away the locks of each other's offspring, Gumball's mother extra careful with Skyla, but as they had squirmed around so much even before alerting them, there was just no way of saving her lake-blue tresses. Forced to cut them away so that her hair was more compact than her friend's, with her parents consent, afraid that she looked like a 'big, mundo nerd', Skyla refused to play with Gumball for the rest of the week her family was staying for, claiming that it was his fault for 'mutilating' her. As it turned out, his hair would only remain sticky for another six months, and hers would stay short for the next ten years, because she 'looked cooler that way'.

Enter her first encounter with Marshall Lee, the Vampire King...

Fair enough, he wasn't quite as old as he is now, but he was still much older than she was at the time, but since he was in his bat form anyways, it wasn't instantly obvious. Besides, being a vampire, there really weren't many people around that were older than he was...

Flying through the sky, intent on scaring some candy people since it was hilarious to see them explode, Marshall paused in midair as he heard direction-less wails and bitter rejections of Gob, the voice trembling as its owner tried but failed miserably at self-control. Regardless of how this encounter went, he was positive that it was sure to be amusing - for him at least. So turning invisible, he located the source of the sound more than easily enough with his vampire ears, the shrunken bat form of a boy hovered just over the girl, waiting for the perfect moment to strike...

Sulking, her arms around her knees as she sat against the wall, still tiny enough that the balcony hid her with ease, Skyla sat cursing Glob for allowing her hair to go like that, "Why, why did it have to be my most prized possession that he took from me?!" For a second, Marshall's mind wondered to a different place, wondering just how old this little girl was, but looking at her, he figured that he had it all wrong, "Why couldn't it have been my arm they had to cut? Or better yet, why not my eyeball? It's not like I needed both of them anyways!" As she sobbed, her voice loud enough to travel but her location far enough from anyone else, he realized that even if she wasn't mentally disturbed to be talking this way, this little girl was still really hardcore. Who knew that the Candy Kingdom had someone in it that wasn't a complete baby? Looking directly at him, not that she knew it, she finally gave him the perfect opportunity, "Why Glob, why?"

"Because you're a bad little girl..." He spoke in his creepiest voice possible, letting her panic for a moment before showing himself, taking immense joy in watching the child freak out almost to the point of hyperventilation, "Boo!"

Eyes wide as dinner plates when she saw him, realizing that she wasn't as alone as she thought, Skyla would have fallen flat on on her butt if she hadn't already been sitting down, her voice tight as it tried to scream, getting out nothing more than a rather high-pitched, "Who are you?!"

The question struck a rather mean, manipulative chord within the vampire, surfacing an irresistible urge, "I...am... Gob!"

"Really?!" Her eyes sparkled a deep amethyst color, a slight oceanic tint lighting the bluer parts, "I never thought you'd be so..."

"Intimidating?" He offered.

She shook her head, "No..."

"Paralyzing?" He tried once more.

"No..." She shook her head again, "Hairy."

Hairy, really, that was what she came back with? He was a gigantic bat for Glob's sake! She really could have went into how frightening he was, saying that she would have nightmares for months, if not years, or she could have commented how how nasty his membranes were, or even how mean his face looked, or she might have acknowledged how bloody his mouth seemed, or at least complained about how smelly he was, but she out of everything she could have said about him, she went with hairy...? What was this little girl's damage?

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Besides the initial start he gave her, she really wasn't very trepidatious of him at all. That wasn't very fun, but he could make the whole Glob-angle work for him, at least for a little longer...

"My daddy and mommy tell me that Glob is a very malevolent being, that he looks after me and keeps me safe." She calmly explained, too naive to realize that if he had been Glob, he already would have known that.

"You mean benevolent?" It was ironic that he was correcting her, because he was nothing if not full of malevolence.

She nodded earnestly, "Yeah, that word! As if I know everything... I'm only six and a half!"

If she was only six, he wondered how long he could make her think that he was Glob...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. Title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** Probably something I should have mentioned in the last chapter, but this story will (hopefully) have multiple pairings, and just because one pairing is together in the beginning, it doesn't mean that they will stay together or vice versa. And as demonstrated by The Loved and Unloved (hopefully you don't mind the shout-out), as with a majority of my stories, the two main characters listed, in this case being Gumball and Marshall Lee, are not the primary romantic focus but merely two of the characters that I plan on featuring prominently, although that isn't to say that they won't have a moment. I'm sorry for any confusion or whatever this may have caused. As for the title, I went with (s)Aint because I feel that Marilyn Manson really hit on something good and true, especially with the line "Hold the "S" because I am an Aint". For the story I envision this to be, that title really captures the essence quite well.


	3. Bullseye!

Tightening his arm around Flame Princess in a show of masculine bravado, Skyler winked at Finn as the baffled blonde boy showed them inside of his home, at a loss for why the other boy would be there, encroaching on the valuable time Finn actually got to share with his girlfriend. Too bad Jake was with Lady right now, because if he had been there Finn was sure that he could distract Skyler so he could have some alone time with FP, and Beemo was out of the question, because he was still recharging... Why did he have to be so stupid and play all through the night?

Looking between her boyfriend and the boy that was her friend, Flame Princess addressed what was on Finn's mind, well, sort of, "Is it alright that my cousin came along? He was supposed to have a date today, but she blew him off." She couldn't help but to giggle at the memory, "It was brutal!"

He rolled his one visible eye, so glad that he could make the daughter of his mother's sister laugh. Finally, his life had meaning!

Conflicted by his dislike of her cousin but glad to see that she had been good enough to stay with him so he didn't feel too bad about being dumped, Finn went with the later emotion, "Well that's nice of you, FP."

She beamed, pleased to do something her boyfriend could praise, the light coming not just from her smile but radiating out from her entire body. She might not have been entirely good, sometimes not even chaotic neutral, but she was just so adorable and he really did like her a lot, so every moment he had that he could say she did something suited more towards his own alignment was a huge thing to be savored, to be celebrated... Honestly, even though it was something that burned at his mind, there were so many times that he just enjoyed being with her, Finn forgot about the good-evil thing quite a lot, the question taking a backseat to their relationship.

Too bad that they were still highly restricted in what they could do, what with her being made of fire and all...

"So..." She glanced at Finn, "Target practice?"

Target practice! It was the perfect thing for them to do together, because not only did that allow her to destroy things, but it gave the young adventurer the opportunity to work on his aim, not that it was hurting in any way, but training was never a bad thing. After the dungeon romp with Flame Princess, Finn was uneasy about what to do with her destructive tendencies, and her over-all lack of enthusiasm with exploring things his way, but thankfully, during a visit with Jake to Lady Rainicorn's, he had the idea of target practice when he saw Cinnamon Bun trying to catch a firefly on the way over. Running the idea by his girlfriend, she was game to try it, and they both had a blast, so from then on, it became one of their staple activities. Some people had watching movies together or whatever, and they had target practice...

Looking at them as if they were the biggest nerds alive, or at least in the room, Skyler shook his head as he followed them back outside into the light, the sweep of aqua-colored bang covering his left eye momentarily moving, a box of random things to throw in Finn's arm. Really, this was how the Princess of the fearsome Fire Kingdom spent her free time? He loved her dearly - FP being the only family member to even speak to him after the falling-out with his parents - but he really had to wonder how the rest of the family viewed him as if he were the strange one. All he could could say to that was wow, that was rich...

**Chapter Three: Bullseye**

As it turned out, Marshall Lee got to keep up the charade that he was Glob for an entire year and a half, and he might have gotten away with lying to her longer if it hadn't been for that goody-goody Prince Gumball. Dumb kid... Who did he think he was to spoil his fun? He was too sugary, too sweet, and personally, the Vampire King didn't see why someone as potentially deranged as little Skyla was would keep company with the likes of that kid. Even way back then, she was a good little henchman type, and a few years later, when the aging ones had hit puberty, Marshall's dislike of Gumball began to make prefect sense, but that wasn't until after Gumball and Skyla had drifted apart...

Prompted into an impromptu visit upon hearing several strange rumors that were more than a small cause of concern, some of which circulate to this very day, Gumball, whom had not seen his childhood friend for a number of years at that point, went in search of her in the one place he knew she would be - Marshall Lee's tree house. Forgetting the word on the street for a moment, Gumball recalled with perfect clarity the last several times he had seen a drastically darkening Skyla, and it was with a shudder that he acknowledged her unspoken intentions for Marshall, and maybe it was hubris, but he assumed that if that had changed, she would have came back to him. After all, hadn't he always been there for her? Weren't they the best of friends? She might not have felt that way anymore, but no matter what, there was a part of him that couldn't forget the times they shared, from scraped up knees (from her ill-begotten plans no less) to the sleepovers they had since they were five.

But, that was teenage Gumball speaking, before he and Lord Monochromihorn had met, before...

It was just after the break up with Ash, and as luck would have it, Skyla was actually out at the time of Gumball's poorly-timed visit, busy collecting her own things from her hole of a residence to formally move in with Marshall, and also was out gathering Marshall's things from Ash's place (the one condition he had for her before he agreed to her moving in), but as Gumball didn't know that she was out (how could he have, unless he had been spying on her all these years), he stood outside of the tree house, waiting to be let in after a series of semi-frantic knocks. Seeing who it was at the door, Marshall surmised his intentions, but being who he was, he wasn't about to let him off lightly. It probably didn't help poor Gumball any that Marshall had just had a rather bad break-up and was therefore even more unpredictable than usual.

"Finally," The prince sighed irritably once the door opened and he saw that it was, unsurprisingly, Marshall Lee that greeted him, very quite worried about his friend, despite the fact that they hadn't spoken in a very long time, "Where is she?"

Fresh out of the shower and only in a navy towel, his mouth-watering abs drying in the air, Marshall quirked up one black brow, "She...? What, did I take your girlfriend again? That happens so frequently, I really can't recall which one you mean. Can you be a little more specific?" Pretending to think about it, he snapped his fingers as an 'idea' suddenly came to him, "Oh, I know, can you repeat what she sounded like in bed? Come on, give me a little moan."

So not amused, Gumball glared at him, "Skyla, where is Skyla?"

"Oh, her?" Marshall shrugged uninterestedly, getting quite the kick out of this, watching how squirmy and jumpy the prince was (which in time would be for completely different reasons), "She's a big girl, so she can go wherever she wants... Besides, I didn't know you ever closed the deal with her."

Blushing, Gumball stuttered, "Wha...What?! I-we-Us-Her and I-?"

"Whoa, easy there, Bubba, there's no need to blow a fuse... I know she has better taste than that." He smirked, letting that sink in for a moment, "No, by now, she should be over with Ash..." He growled at the name, and spent more breaths than he should have spent on a psycho like that swearing at her.

Not even hearing Marshal's rant, Gumball's shoulders slumped a bit in defeat. So, she was out with someone else... Did that mean that the rumors were true? Had she really fallen that much because of one arrogant, cocky cock? Even more disquieted now, he was almost at the point of pleading with the Vampire King for more information on her well being, almost, but not quite, "I know that you don't like me, but surely some part of you must care about Skyla! You have to tell me, how does she fare? Is it true that..." Gumball noticed - not because he was looking - that the towel was sliding lower and lower down the scoundrel's hips, "Marshall?"

"Who said that I didn't like you?" Marshall, swayed by some inner riddle and only really hearing the first few words coming out of Gumball's feminine lips, hovered over from looking out of the window, eyes nearly misting as his heart reminisced about his ex, towel now in danger of completely coming loose... And there it went...

Gumball's eyes went so wide at the sight before him that Marshall thought he was in danger of becoming some kind of eyeball monster, his face flushing almost to white before burning back to a candy brick-red, and the splutters to come out of his mouth were completely incomprehensible, even to the point that they made his earlier stammer seem like a most eloquent speech about the dichotomy of nature and nurture. It was certainly a side of the monarch that the sexy demon spawn hadn't seen before - nor ever expected to see - but he liked it. A lot. Embarrassment suited Gumball so much more than the cloak of self-righteousness he so often wore...

Scooting just a little bit closer to the trembling teen, Marshall winked, "You see anything you like?"

All he could manage in return was, "Eeek!"

Closing in the space that separated them, still very, very naked, Marshall whispered something into Gumball's ear, something ended with a gentle nibble of the earlobe and a long look back out the window before a hesitant nod. Ah, spoiling the innocent was so much fun...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. Title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** Yay for those MarBall fans out there - the obligatory moment! Alright, I just want to say that this is not exactly going to be the 'Skyla/Skyler Show', I just want to try to cement their places, to show that they aren't just some random bozos who got thrown into the story, that they have a place. And again, thank you so much for you're help The Loved and Unloved! I might just be lost without your advice on this fic, so thank you! Yep, I changed the main characters from Marshall Lee and Gumball to Marshall Lee and Fionna...


	4. More than an Eye

Back when things were simple, just as they started to get complicated in a very rapid and insane way, there was a proclamation sent throughout the land declaring the Princess of Lux to be of a marrying age, and despite their parents' years of back and forth negotiations, Prince Gumball and the Princess were not engaged to be wed, which admittedly took a number of people by surprise, including the children - they weren't excited about the thought of being stuck together forever (although today and even tomorrow was fine), but it was something that they grew up with, an idea that was almost natural and always there, unspoken. While they had given her the chance to find love with any man that they deemed worthy, that was the first mistake... Skyla was between two junctures in her life, a person-forming crossroads, and she was torn between two different boys that both symbolized two vastly different lifestyles. She was just too young to be making such an important decision, but she was just old enough to make terrible mistakes...

They had been 'dating' in a child's sense for the past while, the duo mostly just holding hands everywhere they went, but even though he was the older of the two (by a matter of months), she was developing faster, showing a more apparent interest in the opposite sex, and much to his chagrin, her attention was directed at the guy that had spent an entire year pretending to be Gob, just to mess with her head. Honestly, after such a crass prank, he had counted on her to hate him, but in fact his joke had the opposite effect, and she clung to him like the crumbs of an ungreased pan, and since then, there had been a noticeable spike in the Vampire King's appearance rate. When he was alone, which seemed to be more and more frequently as time passed, Gumball found himself thinking of Skyla and what she was getting up to, and at night, when he was sure that he was by himself, he would cry silently into his pillow...

"So, word on the phone line is that a certain little girl is on the market," Marshall commented off-handedly on their way to a party in the woods, in his bat form as she had yet to discover her full abilities over the light waves and stuff, "Is it true?"

While there was a chance that he was being sincere about hearing the news that way, she knew him well enough to guess that he was lying, but as far she knew, her parents had no knowledge of any vampire king, so it was unlikely that he had received one of their announcement letters. Well, it didn't matter, because he knew, and he sounded slightly... well, jealous.

Having a child's crush that under normal circumstances might have dissipated with time, she blushed when she saw him looking up at her, "Oh, that. My 'rents said that I could pick anyone in the kingdom to marry, so long as he met with their requirements. Why, you jealous or something?"

He snorted, rolling his eyes as he gestured at the general direction of the Candy Kingdom, "What, jealous of Prince poofy-pants? Get real, Sky!"

She merely laughed at him, stroking him behind the ear.

Alighting just outside of the party grounds, he let her down before transforming back into himself, the almost famous and uniform red plaid shirt replaced with a simple grey t-shirt instead. She used to be very lady-like and would have dusted herself off after the ride, but now, being at that rebellious stage, Skyla just tousled her electric blue locks, grown slightly (she had kept it relatively short ever since that incident with Gumball) from the ear-length pixie cut she had when she first met Marshall Lee, and tore the skirt from her butter-colored bodice (which she had spray-painted black just before he took her to the party), throwing it into the bushes, upsetting many a leaf. For a second, he didn't think that she was even wearing any bottoms as the tulle was obscuring her behind, the back of the corset cut low so that he could clearly make out the curve of her back, but she was in fact wearing a pair cutoffs.

He play-shoved her, which she returned, "You don't need to worry about him - Gummy Bear's just a friend... If anything, he could only ever play second fiddle in my life..."

"You have a snail in your hair." Marshall stated, reaching up and pucking the waving creature away, flicking it Glob knows where. Maybe it was a tactic to change the subject, or maybe it was merely an observation - she could never figure out which it was, but whatever his purpose had been, it worked to her advantage.

Looking up at him as he removed the little critter from her head, the moonlight capturing the ebony so that it gleamed silver, anything lighter than that bleached to the bone, she stood on her tiptoes, gently kissing him on the lips. That was something she had wanted to do for years, but until that moment, it had never seemed right. Having removed the snail, he felt it too, that moment to act, so he pulled her close, closer, so close that she was sitting on his chest cavity as he hovered over a pile of broken trash left over from before the Great Mushroom War, and they were slowly drifting away from the party, further and further away so that they were less likely to be disturbed...

**Chapter Four: More Than an Eye**

**(Warning: Graphic content)**

Suffice it to say that after word got out about a certain Princess' excursion into darkness (or rather evil's jaunt into the light, whichever you prefer), as word often does tend to do (especially when leaked by the one accidental witness to what otherwise would have been a good time), and when it reached the ears of a certain royal family, they were none too pleased with their daughter, and even less so with the scoundrel to do the deed. Acting swift upon the words of the gabby help, it was by day (a week or so after the actual fact), when they were at their strongest and he at his weakest, that they brought in not only Marshall Lee but Skyla as well, both bound and beaten as the lowest of criminals. It hurt the King and Queen of Lux to see their daughter this way, but the laws had to be obeyed, and if the terms were not meant, then there was only one thing they could do...

Standing, pacing so that he did not have to look at the pitiful sight of his daughter, dragged from her bed late at night and a wreck after only two days in the dungeon, her purpled, quivering form weeping fearfully on the fine carpet, "Before the trial, I must ask you tell me if it is true..." He dared to look down at her, her lovely violet eyes following him as he moved, or the best they could through the slit that had been her left eye, "Daughter fairest, have you given away your fair to this," He glared down at Marshall, one entire side of his body blistering in the sun coming down from the open window, "low-life?"

She looked over at Marshall imploringly, knowing that he would hate her after this, but she not blame him, because she herself was simply appalled that her father would do this to her, to him, "Let him go! Daddy, you can't do this to him! Let him go! Take me in his place, but just don't do this to him!"

That was confession enough, so steeling himself for what must be done, Atmos took a deep breath, "You are no daughter of mine. From this day hence, none shall know you by any name or title given by birthright, but for the dishonored one of the Ex-Princess of Lux!"

"Atmos!" The Queen jumped up, horrified to see this fate befall their daughter, but she backed down at the stern look of her king.

"Have you any last words before its off to the Gallows for the boy?" The King spoke first to the former princess, then he turned his attention to Marshall, not only kicking him while he was down, but kicking the side that was left in direct sunlight, "What about you boy? Any last word before you're sent off with a quick drop and a sudden stop?"

Even though it was Marshall that got kicked - which did cause him to grunt in pain and try to curl up in an even tighter ball dry-heaving on the rug - Skyla cried out, "I beg the right of sacrifice! Since I am no longer anything, dishonored to all of the royal family throughout the world, I see no reason that I should not be allowed to further disgrace myself to the people... I beg the right of sacrifice. King," She said so coldly, her father could almost feel the ice forming in his heart, "I wish to offer up my own life on the condition that you spare his. A former princess for a King with no living subjects. A fair exchange, is it not?"

Marshall looked over at Skyla, difficult since their faces were not only being ground to the floor by the boots of two different guards, but also because he had to completely turn his head the opposite direction, the look on his face nothing short of shocked. Was she really saying what he thought that she was saying? She, a girl with so much life left to live, would just give away her life - to her own parents no less - to prolong his own? Sure, it wasn't like he wanted to die, but he had a good run, living enough for ten of her lifetimes, so why would she do something like this?! Was she merely trying to call her father's bluff? He couldn't see his face, but he could feel the way he kicked him, and he kicked like a man that wasn't bluffing...

"...A King?" He looked around for a denial of this, for someone to laugh out, but there was not a soul in the room that was in the mood for merriment, "Is this true, boy?" Atmos turned his radiant head of gold to the boy, "Are you truly a King?"

"Mar..." He coughed, "Marshall Lee, the Vampire King," He managed to choke out passed the lump in his throat, parched, hungry, and vocal chords suffering from so much sun exposure, formally introducing himself to her parents.

A king... This changed things, changed it enough so that he still might be able to call her his daughter out loud... "While the declaration states that our daughter might marry whomever she may wish, you have yet to meet our approval. But having said that, you already do possess vast knowledge of our daughter, I'm sure-"

"No." Skyla shook her head, the weight of the guard becoming too much for her neck to support, her response taking everyone (especially Marshall) by surprise, "I will not marry him." While there was a large part of her that would have loved nothing more, she refused to let it happen this way, "Either let him go as a royal, or let him go for my life!"

"I am no barbarian... I will not take the life of my child, but neither can I spare him for his crimes, king or no..." He was disappointed by her answer, but unsurprised, as she had been his daughter until that moment, "Guards, bring me the female." Waving his hand, the king bent his face close to the girl's once she had been brought to him, her body almost paralytically limp, lowering his voice to a hush so that they would not be overheard by the others, "I do not wish to see you dead!"

"If you kill him," She remained absolute in her decision, refusing to change her answer in the face of certain death, her voice just as low as the king that was keeping her prisoner, "it will be as if you kill me too."

Looking at her eyes, so full of fiery determination, just as were the eyes of his own mother, the eyes his brother, the flame King, inherited, Atmos thought of an idea, speaking aloud, "So you say that killing this whelp will be tantamount to killing you, girl? Well let it be known that I am a kind king, so I offer you life once more or it will be off with the both of you - Give me your third and final untouched treasure, and your word that you shall never darken our doorstep, and I shall let you both go free this very day."

Knowing exactly what the King meant by that, Marshall looked over at Skyla. She couldn't... But if she didn't, then that meant that they would both...

There was no thinking about it for her, not if it meant giving Marshall the chance to live another day, even if that meant losing everything else she ever loved (what good would any of it do without him?), "We have an accord, your majesty."

"Excellent!" The King clapped his hands together excitedly, as if the head chef had just informed him that they were preparing his favorite meal for supper that night, summoning his page, "Send for the gougers!" He added more to himself, "Oh, the gougers, what fun! Why did that punishment ever fall out of favor? As if losing something is worse than being put to death! Fools don't have any idea what they're talking about!"

Had they been able to, that would have been their cue to scoot out of the room and run far, far away...

The feather-hated page came back minutes later, a pair of cruel-looking copper instruments on a velvet pillow in his hand. Taking them with a sadistic gleam in his frigid sky-blue eyes, the chain holding the two pieces together rattling sinisterly, the King put it on his thumb and index finger. Taking his daughter's face in his free hand, squeezing it tight so she wouldn't fidget, he whispered something to her, and he proceeded to pluck out her right eye, and once it was out, he kissed the top of her head, "You're free to go now."

Freed from their shackles at that time, Marshall ran over to Skyla, and he helped her out of that place, one arm around her waist...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. Title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** So... Is this story still a T, or did that just make it an M? I dunno, tell me your thoughts! Alright, one more flashback chapter (for now) until we get more into the meat of the story! I was originally going to just get right back into it, but I was thinking to myself that the question Gumball poised still wasn't answered, so one more, just for that extra push!


	5. Marshall Loves

Out of every one in the world that could possibly have asked her that question, she was unable, unwilling to believe that as a fairly big part of her story, the catalyst in fact that brought the two of them together in the first place, he would be the one to ask her such a ridiculous question! After all, Gumball of all people should have known the answer to that without having to hear it from her lips, should have seen it in the way that her eye followed him around the room, should have tasted the way she spoke about her on-again off-again roommate, should have heard the way her skipped a beat every time someone said his name, should have felt it every time she had bent over backwards to accommodate the Vampire King. He should have known all of this, but he still had the nerve to ask her? She idolized him, loved him, adored him, feared him, and served him. Even the smallest of children knew that there was nothing she wouldn't do for Marshall Lee, although they failed to understand the more complex points of their...arrangement... but the others knew. They knew what she would do, they saw her in the shadows, and they undoubtedly loathed her for it, branding her, but she didn't care, because Marshall didn't care.

It made her weak, made her spineless, made her all kinds of terrible things, and to say that it didn't kill her on the inside would be a lie, but Skyla told herself that she could endure it, because sooner or later, Marshall would realize that he loved her too, and then it all would have been worth it...

That's what she told herself, but she knew that it wasn't true... Marshall was in love with that Fionna girl, and no matter what she did to herself to try to look like her (Grod knows how much potion she went through to give herself a blonde tint, and even today she was wearing her own navy mini-skirt, the stockings more of a parchment color with baby-blue ribbons near the top), no matter much intimacy they shared behind mostly closed doors (and she did mean mostly), it didn't change the fact that she was the girl that he was just killing time with until the real prize came along. Why couldn't it have been her? Was it because he had known her since before her womanly shape came in, or was it something deeper, something about her that kept him ever at bay from crossing that particular line? She knew that her cousin would have said something about her being too available, and she couldn't help but to wonder if that wasn't true... But who else was there that would want her? The ruffians, maybe, or possibly some low-life criminal, but even then, she doubted that it would be anything serious...

Weather he meant to or not, Marshall had single-handedly made it impossible for anyone to love her, because his blind rejection kept her from loving herself...

But even still, the blame laid within and solely there, and she knew it, despised herself for it, so looking back at the boy that once knew her just as well as she knew herself, her artificial lemon-cream fringe falling over more than just her right eye, Skyla could barely hold the sorrow out of her voice, "What does Marshall mean to me? He is my everything, and for as long as there is a breath in my body, I will be there for him, giving him whatever he needs."

**Chapter Five: Marshall Loves...**

Maybe she had been too tough on him, maybe her fist had gone one hit too far, maybe she had used too much strength, because when she had finished with Marshall, his face almost battered beyond all recognition, all Fionna could think about was the lack of resistance he put up. Why would he do that? Yeah, he totes brought it on himself for being such a jerk, but why would he allow her to clean his clock like that, especially when only minutes ago he had shown her just how strong he could be a scrape?! Urgh, she just didn't get him! One minute he was all cool, and the next, it seemed as if he were playing all kinds of games with her head!

Just behind her sister, housemate, fellow adventurer, and best friend, Cake was still elongated to shield Marshall from any additional crisping, for Fionna's sake. She watched them like a hawk would watch an innocent bunny before taking it back to its nest, Fionna pummeling the sleaze with a little too much ease, and it troubled her greatly (her behind still had the markings to prove that he was more capable than that). Just what was that that boy planning this time?

Intending to hit him once more, Fionna lashed out in frustration, "Why aren't you defending yourself?! I've seen what you can do, so come on Marshall, fight back!"

Hm, you tell him how it is, Fionna!

Catching her fist with ease, the vampire prevented her from striking him in the gut, thus avoiding losing his dinner, which might have proven very bad for the human, "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Fionna, Fionna, Fionna, what am I going to do with you? Don't you know that it's incredibly bad manners to renounce a gentleman's kindness when he's try to be courteous to his lady friend?"

"Yeah...what?" She looked at him, flabbergasted not that he could block her without even trying, but that he would say something like all of that so unexpectedly. Maybe he knew Gumball better than they let on... Given their last several interactions, it would make sense.

"Yeah, what?" Cake had been alive for a long time, longer than she would admit, and out of everything that she had ever seen, Marshall's sudden flip was definitely not one of the things that she was accustomed to, but she did know some of the ploys boys would use on girls, especially the naive ones like Fionna, so she was on the defensive as she listened.

He sighed heavily, wagging his head, "What has he been teaching you? I guess after the last girl, he learned not to teach savages etiquette," Still holding on to her fist, he let go with both pinkies extended, "Fionna?"

"Last girl?" Cake's tail fluffed out, her mind filled with suspicions as to who that last girl was, because she knew Gumball's history (more for the fact that she enjoyed good gossip than anything else), and from what she had heard, he had only had one serious relationship prior to his attempts at Fionna.

For just a fraction of a second, her face went blank, "What do you mean, savage?"

Acting as if he hadn't heard Cake speak, he broke into a wicked little smirk, expecting the little human to inquire as to the identity of said girl, or to even wonder out loud what he knew about Bubba, "I mean people like you and me, that aren't into the kind of torture that he would want us to subject ourselves to... Savages are people that would rather run free, uninhibited by rules or worry as they did whatever they pleased, people that struggle for the sheer enjoyment of it, that revel in doing what society would frown upon. Fionna, you and I are those people."

It was a similar speech that he had given in the past, but just as before, he failed to see it as a tool of manipulation, a way to make angels fall... To him, he was merely speaking the truth as he saw it.

Oh, hell to the no! Cake couldn't believe what he was trying to put in her head, and she could believe even less that she was falling for it! Hissing as she spoke, Cake tried to bring her friend back to attention, "Fionna!"

"Well, I _do_ love to kick butt," She thought about the last ball Prince Gumball had thrown, when it had really been the Ice Queen in disguise, but deep down, she knew that if she stayed where she was, it would only be a matter of time until she was forced into more of those, obliged to wear another dress... But she did really like Gumball...

But Marshall was right - she wasn't meant for that world...

Besides, while she liked Gumball, he wasn't the guy that made her heart go just a little bit faster...

"Fionna, you should come with me tonight." Marshall Lee, though he might not have have admitted it before, really was intrigued by Fionna in a way that he hadn't been intrigued by anyone else before, and it was an intrigue that was more than just a friendly curiosity...

For her part, she wanted to ask if it was a date, but she knew Marshall, and she would guess that he would deny it, so she decided to just go with it, "You're on."

Hearing the Hammer of Doom falling against the Wall of Fate with a resounding crack, Cake could have cried... She wanted more than anything to intervene, to protect her little sister from making a huge mistake, but she knew that once this date was made, there was no getting out of it: Either Fionna realized what a creep Marshall was on her own, or Cake could say something and make Fionna go out of raw emotion and teenage spite, thus ensuring at least a month of the pairing of Fionna and Marshall Lee...

Cake wanted to have faith in Fionna, but she feared that no matter how strong of character someone was, they were no match for hormones...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. Title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** BAM! Told you that the actually story was just around the corner!


	6. Lost in Your Storm

Kicking at the sandy pebbles that littered the burnt ground (no doubt in thanks to Flame Princess), his arms ground firmly into his knees as his cousin and her boyfriend frolicked and romanced it up, Skyler noticed that one of the little rocks looked like a goat that was missing its other horn. He had never seen a goat before, but he had seen pictures of them in books that resided deep inside of the Ice King's castle; Simon had several books written before the Great Mushroom War, and besides seeing Marcy happy (for the few minutes that that happened), his favorite part of visiting the Ice Kingdom was getting the chance to browse the forgotten tomes.

But mostly, it was seeing that one brief instance of sheer contentment on her face. Oh, Marcy... It hurt to watch her go through it, her struggles with Simon, with the past, with the feelings inside of her head, but he did everything he could think of to make it all easier on her. She didn't say it, but he could tell that it helped her, having at least one person she could talk to about her past, and he was glad that it was him. She might just have viewed him as that snot-nosed little brat, but he was elated that she thought about him at all, and his elation was at full force when he got to partake in the fruits of her happiness.

Stirring the ground around and around with his scuffed up hide-colored boot, that one little pebble getting lost in the storm he had created before surfacing once more, Skyler glanced over at his cousin one more time, looking at the way she literally lit up when Finn was around. Being more of his littler sister than a younger cousin, he was very protective of her, but watching the two of them together, he didn't feel like he needed to be so blunt and watchful - she was in good hands. Damn, there was that same pebble again...

**Chapter Six: Lost in Your Storm  
**

To say that Prince Gumball found her answer to be a disappointment was an understatement, "So you give him everything you have. What does he give you, besides heartache?" Gumball looked at the husk standing across from him, still finding himself at odds to reconcile this girl and the one that he used to know, the one that wanted to be a famous opera singer one day and a circus acrobat the next, the one that gave him her first kiss, "You've lost a lot because of him, so what has he given you, besides Nightosphere illness? Does he leave you little notes that tell you how much he appreciates you? Does he secretly send you little gifts just to make you smile but pretend to get jealous when you tell him about it?" Whatever bitter harshness that had been in his tone died then, replaced with a reluctant sympathy at her sorry state, "Does he even know that you love him?"

Looking down, all she could do was cry. Sure, there had been one or two sweet things Marshall had done for her over the years, but no, there had been nothing like what Gumball had done for her in that small window when he tried to woo her, that time when she still might have been 'saved', that time when they had briefly tried to evolve their friendship, but what did they know back then? What did she know now? Not a l whole lot, that much was for sure...

Even before taking that fatal plunge with Marshall that had literally cost her everything but her own life and his grateful friendship (although how grateful for it he was now was a mystery to her), Skyla had faced her fair share of difficulties with more than just Gumball. The Royal Tart Toter, or 'Tottie' as the young princess called her, was one of of her closer friends, and someone that she would frequently spend her time with, but no matter how close they had been, even at the end, she too had turned her back from the princess.

'_You've changed, Princess, from the sweet girl you once were, and it breaks my heart! You were a royal that the candy people would dearly have loved and readily followed, a queen that could have been so beloved by her people, but ever since you've started to associate with that rascal, you've lost sight of yourself, of the woman that you're supposed to be!" _Tottie had spoken not out of judgement as as she originally believed, but concern for where her life was going.

And what had been her scathing reply? _"So you too have turned your back to me? Tottie, out of everyone, I thought that you would understand, that I'm not losing sight of anything, that I'm being the girl I was always meant to be... I'm not made of sugar like the rest of you, and Marshall showed me that I don't have to pretend like I'm what you all want me to be! I can be me, even if that means that I lose all of my so-called friends. If none of you can see that I'm happy now, then that just means that none of you were my real friends... Not even you. I'm sorry that I can't be perfect, that I can't make myself pretend anymore, but I would rather see myself dead than be what you people want from your queen."_

How was that her not losing sight? The only thing of importance or even note in her life had happened in her teens, when she had given up any remaining friends she had, her family, and any form of right she might have had to happiness to save the life of another, but was that really where her story ended? What else could she have been made for though? For this anguish? To be a a cautionary tale for parents to tell their children? It was certainly true that she wasn't made of sugar - possibly milk - but since she had thrown it all away, what else was there for her? She had thought in her youth that she had broken free, but all she had done was lock herself inside the guise of the wild child, the strumpet that could care less about any one or thing, and though she could never reproach Marshall, hadn't it been his influence that convinced her it had been a good idea to 'be what she wanted to be'? It was foolishness on her part to take his every word as some holy truth, because looking back, those that had tried to reach out to her, that she had accused of trying to temper her to their ideas, they had been her real friends, and as much as it killed her to admit, the one person she had thought was there for her was only looking out for himself..._  
_

Not blind, it was impossible to miss that truth, especially when she had nothing but time to dwell on it, but even still, she could not help what her heart felt at the end of the day, and for her, that was Marshall, no matter what it caused her. She truly did love him, from the depths of her soul to the bottom of her toes, but he... He didn't feel the same way she did...

Knees buckling as her crisp exterior folded like a card tower in the wind, Skyla found herself on the floor of her romantic rival's home, but how could Fionna be a rival when Marshall didn't know the truth of how she really felt about him, the closet they ever came to discussing that a joke about the idiocy of the world for buying into any story they were told? She knew that he didn't mean to make her suffer this way, but all the same, she was upset that Gumball had driven her to this point, to show her shame to another, to have to acknowledge aloud her torment.

"Why are you doing this to me...?" She gazed up at him, vision blurring as the tears damaged what was left of her depth-perception, "Do you want to see me cry? To gloat that your life is wonderful? Or is this your form of punishment for some imagined slight? I know, this is payback for choosing him over you... You want me to see just how pitiful my life is now, and you want to show me what I missed out on. Well, I have news for you, Prince Dry Balls, you already hurt me when you and Marshall broke in _my _bed. Thanks for that, by the way."

He looked at her with wide eyes, mortified that she had seen that, "I didn't know who's bed that was! I mean..." He waved his arms in the air, trying cut away what she was saying, "I never did anything with Marshall Lee!" He sighed, fully aware that there was no denying it, his tone fully apologetic, "I never meant to do that to you - I knew how much you loved him, how much you still love him. I don't know if he told you, but I actually went looking for you, because things sounded so bad... I had to know that it wasn't true. I guess that the truth was worse than the innuendo..."

"Isn't that the truth of all scandal?" She glanced up at him, the ghost of a smile on her face, "That's what your mother used to say, that no matter how boring the real story was, the truth was always worse than what anyone could cook up. She was a good woman, and a queen that..."

That she would have liked to have been compared to. Gumball wanted to finish the sentence for her, but he just couldn't bring himself to do that, "She really did like you. " She died saying just what a good woman she would have been for her son, "'Even after everything'. I still believe that she was right about you." He held his hand out to her, "Maybe not about the wife part, but I know that you still have something good inside."

Looking at his hand as if it would bite her, Skyla sat there for a moment, cautious of what it would mean to take it; would her taking his hand be just a simple matter of him, assisting her in a single moment, or would it be a metaphor for something deeper, an accord that would would mean her faith in Marshall Lee had diminished? Or even if her relationship with the charismatic vampire was not in question, not even a factor, well, would it still be a larger, unspoken pact that linked them together until such a time that the prince either got bored with her, with whatever game this was, or more likely knowing him, when he felt as if she had been saved from herself...

Seeing her uncertainty, the doubt a pendulous raincloud over hear head, Gumball extended his hand even further, almost to the point where he was touching her, "As a Prince, you have my word that I have no intentions of seeking casual dalliance with you," He waggled his fingertips at her, "and as your old friend," He smiled down at her, "you have my word that I only want to help you."

She wanted to trust him, for so many reasons she truly wanted to trust him, but after everything she had been through, it was not easy, "... What else do I have to lose?"

It wasn't an easy thing to do, but she literally had nothing left to lose, and even her very existence was wearing itself thin...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. Boo me! Title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** Maybe this really is the Skyla Show... Damn you Alexia! Sorry, inside joke. Well, any who, who's up for reviewing? It's a painless process, I promise. If not, may I be struck by mini-van sized hail in unusual shapes. *wait a minute, what's that in the sky? Why does it look a waffle-iron?*


	7. Call It In

Pacing back and forth inside the living room as Cake and Beemo watched - Cake with disapprovingly crossed arms and Beemo just being Beemo - Fionna's fearsome fists of furry a little less tight but no less tense than when her back was to the wall, she was nervously wringing the free piece of her immeasurable golden locks. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to go out on an actual date with the infamous Marshall Lee! Oh no, that wasn't some lily-livered, knee-quaking, lovestruck little teenage girl statement - Fionna was confident in the person she was on her own, positive of her strengths and sure of her weaknesses, but to add in anyone else, a known romancer or not, that was problematic.

"Fi," Cake cut into her musings, tail twitching in irritation as she did her best to keep her opinion in for her friend's sake, "You're not seriously going to go out with him," It was so obvi that she wanted to say something else, "are you?"

She had already given him her word, so Fionna wasn't about to back out of their plans to meet up later, not without a good reason first, so she waved her feline friend down, "I know all about his reputation, but that's all just words... Marshall..." She blushed slightly, "Marshall isn't that kind of guy."

"'Not that kind of guy'?!" Cake stretched her rear out and pointed a claw at the faint marks still left over, "These didn't just make themselves show up!"

Looking at them closely, all purple-pink and circular yet splotchy, Fionna noticed that one in fact did appear by itself since the earlier scuffle, the irregular bean shape giving it away, "Umm... Cake, that one wasn't there before..."

Twisting her head around in an owlish curly-q, the older female saw not the markings of a vampire hand, but a hand with an extra finger! Either he was craftier than she had given the trouble-maker credit for (very likely), or one of the Spot People got lost and made its home on her... Reaching for the extra contour, Cake's paw froze in midair as the spot - just a shade or two grapier than the rest - sprang from her fur like a fire had lit underneath its little behind. Sprouting little arms from the top of its head and three legs, it skipped off, muttering something (probably about finding a nice home) in a voice too little and jumbled to understand.

"Cake, c'mon! I know that he didn't make the best impression," Cake scoffed at that understatement, "But he just doesn't know when 'too far' is too far, you know? I know he's not a bad guy..." Thinking a little more about it, Fionna realized that the switch in his actions came just after she had said as much to him, "He just must not want people to know that about him."

And with that, the adventurer let out a mighty big yawn, tired from her long night. Maybe just a little nap would suffice, until it was time to get ready...

**Chapter Seven: Call It In  
**

Why was it that no matter how much he mixed the ground up, that same little pebble came back up? Was it trying to tell him something? That perhaps no matter how jumbled and wobbly-donged things got, some things would always be constant? But if that was what the little rock was saying, then what would be the variable and what would be the constant? Something predetermined, or was anything replaceable in the equation? Skyler glanced over at Finn and the Flame Princess, laughing at something that had happened while they enjoyed each other's company, and for the briefest of seconds, he envisioned them to be different, to be not themselves but a potential gender-swapped version. He show his head - he was spending just a little too much time with Simon and Marcy...

Wait a moment, Simon and Marcy... That started to turn the gears in his head, if only a little bit. What was the one thing that Marceline seemed to want more than almost anything else in the world? For Simon to remember her, or even to remember himself, obviously, but since he wasn't able to give her that, what would be the next best thing that he actually could do for her? To make The Ice King happy, and what was the best way to do that (short of kidnapping a princess)? By bringing him Fionna and Cake!

Everyone insisted that they were just the mad ravings of an insane mind, but he wasn't so sure... For one thing, though Simon's stories could get a little strange and under-written, the world and characters were just too mapped out in his mind, and besides, Ice King knew more than he realized at times, so it was possible that the crown he wore had had some sort of an experience in that world. There was also the fact that he had so much devoted to the two heroines that went above and beyond his usual obsessions, so Skyler found it very likely that Simon wasn't as wrong about this as everyone told him he was.

But how could the former prince bring the reversed genders to Ooo...? He was no wizard, he had no extraordinary powers that could make the impossible possible (if he has those, his life would have been considerably different). The Enchiridon, maybe (it certainly had the power and knowledge to do all kinds of stuff), but that had been destroyed when the Lich had tried to use it take over all of the worlds...

All of the worlds...

Even the ones that feasibly existed solely in the mind of a crazy old man, even ones with their own copies of the sacred tome...

Maybe there was a way to make Marcy happy after all...

Tapping the bottom of the silver-blue hoop that hung closest to his right earlobe, it slowly unfurled itself around his finger until it grew just large enough to talk into (his phone was just one of the cool things that Marceline had given him over the years), "Hello, lovely ~"

On the other end of the line, on her red cellular telephone, was none other than the everyone's favorite hobo princess from Lumpy Space, her voice as flirtatious as always, "Skyler, you missing these lumps already?"

"You know it, girl!" It was common between these two to 'flirt', but it had never been romantic on either side, well, intentionally, "Hey, listen LSP, I was wondering if you were heading back home anytime soon -?"

He could practically hear her rolling her eyes, "You're just like everyone else! It's always about the lumps! Why can't it ever be about what's on the inside! I can be deep too!"

This was getting nowhere fast, so Skyler had to steer this back around if he was going to get what he wanted in this lifetime, "I know that! You know I love your inside lumps just as much as the outsides ones, so come on, return the love and tell me that there's something happening in Lumpy Space..."

She owed him for that one time, for that one thing, so he didn't feel bad about trying to do this one thing, and apparently she could tell that this was him, using up that one favor, "It just so happens that this week is the monthly centennial celebration, and tonight is the bonfire. The bonfire is always the best part. I guess I could take you. Whatever."

"Did I ever tell you that you were my favorite princess in all of Ooo?" He smiled, almost doing a victory dance on the spot, "Come pick me up when you're ready to go."

"Whatever!" Came her reply as she turned her phone off, no doubt to send out a mass message about her plans.

If this plan didn't work, there was a good chance that he could die, or even worse, get lost in the vacuumious void of space forever, never to see those that he loved again, but if he didn't risk it, he ran the hazard of being stuck in this place for the rest of his life, and as much as he secretly loved Marceline, Skyler was not prepared to stay in the same position. He knew who he was, but he lacked the courage to advance, afraid to lose the girl of his dreams, so he was more than ready to gamble all of his chips on a long-shot than to just come clean and lay all of his cards on the table. He was an idiot.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** And viola! The story emerges from the shadows! But does it rear its ugly head, or does it lurk just behind the shadows, waiting, waiting... Nah, I'm just playing! Oh, me, writing insanely late at night again! I really ought to stop doing that... Oh well, that doesn't seem like its going to happen anytime soon. T-T


	8. Singing Dolls

_Doll. Dolls in dresses, dolls in houses, dolls at dinner. Painted so pretty, they sit plastic and shiny, flaxen ebony auburn brown hair not a strand out of place. Their eyes watch you without moving, creepy, almost immortal, definitely moving immoral. Dolls. Baby dolls, rag dolls, it makes no difference, because at the end, they will always just be plastic._

Marceline set her pen down against the scribbled on page and frowned at her lyric book, mad at the paper as if it were the spiral notebook's fault that she was stuck...

_Woman, girl, or toy, it didn't matter, because she was always that way..._

No, she shouldn't be thinking those thoughts - she had to write this song for that toy's kid. Shaking her head, the Vampire Queen tried to quell thoughts of her old ex, of that sly (possibly psychotic) princess, her true passions and brain always getting in the way of their relationship. She knew that it was never going to work between the both of them, that they were just too different, but still Marceline tried, hoping that she was wrong, that those beautiful times they shared would span more than just hours. She wanted to believe, but she just didn't have the strength, although she knew that if the other girl would ever just get off of her high-horse and apologize, all would be forgiven, and if she would allow it, Marceline knew that they would fall back into place, the grains of joy slipping through the cracks of their old mistakes until they arrived back here, in this place once more...

_You sit so high on your shelf, but you pretend that you don't collect dust. Admired by all you sit with rosy cheeks, eyes glued with hearts, and when the hand of your owner touches you, you shatter into a million tiny pieces, and my heart sinks low..._ No, that was good, but the last part needed to be changed to suit the target audience, _Admired by all you sit with rosy cheeks, eyes glued with hearts, and when the hand of the judged touches you, _ashes _and dust is all anyone can see. When touched, your masquerade is over, and you're alone. Sometimes I feel so alone, your plastic smile as bright as ever, and I feel myself die inside. Death is a doll, so prefect and a dream..._Eh, if played in the right tune, they wouldn't even notice the lyrics anyways...

**Chapter Eight: Singing Dolls  
**

**(It might get a little suggestive...)**

Marshall Lee made her feel many things, but for his part, he had begun to take her presence for granted, thinking her clinging shadow a normal thing, even as it lurked and stooped and bided its time, so it was a bit of a shock for him when she wasn't there when he called out for her. It was just after his day-te with Fionna, his face already mostly all healed up now that he was inside and well out of the day, but he received no answer when he called out to her with the news... He assumed that after swooping the fighting War-Maiden off of her feet (literally), that Skyla wouldn't have been far behind, following after him.

Maybe it had something to do with Gumball? He recalled that they had had a history together, the depths of which was uncertain to the vampire, but surely catching up with each other would only take her so long? What was there to say? She cleaned up a few messes and started a scuffle or two, and he what, made a proclamation? Accidentally stumbled across the perfect recipe for disaster when he baked up a spoiled lemon desert? Of what possible interest could that have been to her?

Calling out into the darkness of her basement-room for the third time, her name almost a song on his lips, Marshall Lee tried to get her attention once more, "You can stop playing with me, Little Skye. I'm in need of some healing, and I could use my own private nurse."

Nothing.

He poked his head into the underground bedroom and flipped on the lights, momentarily blinded as the hanging strings lit up all at once, each colored bulb catching on the crystals that dangled from the ceiling. Casting a watchful eye around the room, lined with numerous plush dolls and strewn with clothes, her dresser containing anything from cobwebs to elaborate costumes for his own enjoyment to secret journals to naughty secret things, he paused at the bed. While it was now covered in various blankets and pillows, the lone king-sized mattress did more than take up half of the floor; it reminded him of Gumball. Smiling a little at himself, Marshall turned his back to the room, let down that it was empty and she was nowhere to be seen...

Where was that girl? His momentary grin was quickly replaced by a grimace as a dark, disturbing thought crossed the vampire's mind. Was it truly conceivable that she had stricken up some sudden or vaguely rekindled fire for Bubba? No, he knew her, and wads like the prince weren't the kind of guy that she associated with. Wait a minute... Just what was the kind of guy that she _did _associate with? She had dedicated so much of her own time dotting on his every whim that he didn't even see her look at any other males, and Glob knows that there were enough of them...

Could it be that she was into... No, at worst she was a free spirit that didn't discriminate, because if there was anything he did know about that girl, it was the way she moved. He knew her as well as he knew the back of his own right hand. Actually, looking down at the curvature and lines of his hand, he realized that he knew her better than that even, every curve of her body a cherished friend that could never be forgotten, not matter how distant they grew, the exact tone of her skin the staple of his favorite book, her voice the melody he played in his mind before he went to sleep. Ok, maybe the last one wasn't as much of an exaggeration as the rest of it, each thought being truer and truer, but the point was that he knew her, and the Skyla he knew was very much into the male species.

But then, where was she? Turning back around and facing her door one more time, he thought that she might have left behind some kind of clue as to her current whereabouts, assuming that he could make heads or tails of the war-zone she occupied... Looking around as if he were being watched, he slid the door open very slowly, very aware of every creak and groan he made as he crept along. True, he was floating like he always did, but opening the door and turning on the light made sound, and so it was those sounds that he was cautious of.

Going straight to the most unknown thing, that tempting x-mark on the map, Marshall Lee floated over to the dreary chest of drawers, his hand mere inches away from the silver-gold handle. He shouldn't do this thing - Skyla had always been an open book and told him everything. Asking himself since when did he pause at this kind of violation, he got his answer in the form of a mental image, Fionna's face floating before his eyes. Ah, so that was when...

Figuring that that kind of opportunity didn't present itself every day, Marshall Lee discarded the warning, fancying the notion that what they didn't know wouldn't kill them, and he opened the top drawer. Row after row of books lined the contents, from subjects ranging from old family albums smuggled through her cousin to how-to volumes, to old adult picture books in foreign, dead languages to note books and journals stuffed to the brim. Closing the drawer, now understanding why it was so heavy, he moved on to the next drawer, finding more and more of the same. Stopping just short of the last drawer (that just so happened to chronicle her feelings for a certain guy), he pulled out one of the more used notebooks, recognizing it immediately as her song book. She wasn't anywhere near his level when it came to playing an instrument, but she wasn't so bad at writing lyrics.

Taking the teal covered thing in his hands, he flipped open the collection of poems and lyrics, stopping at one that had been boxed with a heart at the corner. Drawing might have been a strong suit for her, but because it was only a doodle, he wasn't sure if his assessment was true or not.

_Take my heart and tie it with a red string. _It said that that part was spoken, but the rest was sung,_ I would love you, if you let me, but in secret, I watch you devour me whole. I'm never going to be the one for you, never going to save anything with you, only suffer as I know that they're never going to be good enough for you. Some might say that there's nothing more to our love than a red, red, red tear in my eye, singing out how pretty I look when I cry, but when you undo your belt, it all melts away. Once, I had a dream, I was happy and I stopped being sacred and ashamed to speak my mind, but you weren't there. Even if you gave away all the things you love, even if one of them was me, I fear that my heart will beat on and on, an unkillible monster that refuses to die, keeping me alive and in pain. My own love is the enemy I must overcome to be by your side, and every day I fight a losing battle! Don't you know that I'll do anything to be your lover, to be tomorrow...  
_

For a split second, Marshall thought that she might have been talking about him, but when he got to the end of her song, seeing the line 'I'll do anything to be your lover', he realized that she couldn't have been talking about him... And since she couldn't have meant him, then all of her allusions to the color red only could have meant one other person...

Hoping to prove that theory wrong, Marshall flipped the page and read the next song, _Prisoner or property, there is no word for what I want to do to him. There are no words in his mouth, but I can tell that he sees a perfect imitation, even in the way I bleed. Watching clouds of red pass us by, I think of him, knowing that this is not the world for me, fading away bit by bit as he takes my angel away_-

He turned the page once more, still not satisfied by what he saw, not on a personal level, _Hollow as a shell, I drift through the waves, beat down by the eyes of the sea, torn apart daily by this growing void between us. If I died tomorrow, alone and with no one watching, was I ever really alive in the first place? We were looking for something that only we could share, but it was taken away before we could really start looking. Time passed since then, and I'm something that I should never be, lost to you, lost to me. I wanted to be your savior, but who's going to save me? Who's going to save me? I reach out, but I'm drowning. Drowning in the waters of my mistakes, drowning in my unshed tears, drowning in it all. I'm just flesh and blood, but when I touch you, I'm not a victim of circumstance but a forgiver. Feeling all alone as I wait for you, you know that I'm a forgiver, so just reach out and touch me. I might be as a hollow as a shell, but I know that you will be there to touch me._

The notebook dropped from his hand.

...Was that really how she felt? That he was smothering her, keeping her locked away from her precious Gumball? Did she actually feel like he was draining her life from her? He thought that this entire time their arrangement had been consensual, but reading these pages, he had to wonder if she was as willing a participant as he thought she was...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** If you look closely, you can see a nod/homage to a most brilliant and talented mind, as well as a bit of an implied relationship. Ok, that last one might be a little more recognizable, but all the same, they're both in there! As well as me playing with that rating again... Will I ever stop, or just finally change the rating to an 'M' so that I can just stop having this debate? Every time I put it at an M, it seems as if it falls short, but to leave this at a T isn't easy for me... Well, maybe one more comment, and I just might go for it and take that plunge... Maybe. On second thought, looking at how Marshall's and Skyla relationship is, I think that that automatically qualifies it as an M... If not, well, this will get moved back to the T range, I suppose.


	9. 26 Shades of Gray

None too happy about it, Bonnibell Bubblegum set aside the dainty blush-hued notes stuck inside her chemistry books like extra handwritten pages and looked at the fizzling failure stretched out across the slab in her lab. Now that she at least understood Lemongrab and their sour nature, she thought that she might have found a way to make the next one a little less lemony, but when she added the extra sugar and sweetness to the mix, all she got was an unstable reaction..._  
_

For a second the procedure had worked, a face-like shape forming in the peach-colored gook, but it was a monstrosity, the candy flesh running down itself in the most gruesome of ways, the pitted sockets empty and more like deflated ovals, the cavity meant to be the mouth like wax melting into itself, a candy-corn tooth poking out through the fleshy cheek. As quickly as it had came, the creature let out a piercing wail before disassembling itself back into a deformed blob, the shape lost like water through cupped hands.

Yet another failure...

Maybe Marceline was right - maybe, even though with science it was possible, maybe it wasn't right to play Glob and try to create artificial life. Lemongrab number one was a huge disaster to say the least, and if he hadn't been such a butt, she could have stayed with Finn longer, happy and unburdened by age, but no, it didn't matter, because he had _her_ now... That walking destruction... Humph! Goliad was no better than Lemongrab had been, possibly even worse in fact, due to her telepathic capabilities, and at least when together with the first, Lemongrab number two was kinder, influencing the first to be slightly less harsh. The only 'child' she had made that had been either good or effective without causing any type of damage had been her 'offspring' with Finn: Stormo.

Hmmmm, was that an indicator that her failures laid not with her own inner corruptions but with the lack of a stabilized partner of an alternate origin? Perhaps, perhaps...

It was certainly worth looking into...

**Chapter Nine: 26 Shades of Gray  
**

All throughout the trek back to the Candy Kingdom from Fionna and Cake's grassland tree house, Skyla was morbidly mute as they went through the wickedly windy landscape, arms tight around her shoulders, head bowed in shame, tears dampening her one eye. Concernedly watching her from the corner of his own eye, holding the umbrella over her as much as he could without leaving himself exposed to the elements (maybe a little too used to traveling with a hardy girl like Fionna that didn't require such conveniences), he could imagine why she was so silent - She must have viewed this as some kind of a betrayal to her pride, if not to her closest friend and constant companion, and maybe even more than that (or at least more in his own mind), this was the first time she had stepped foot inside of this place since her banishment. What must have been going through her head to see this place for the first time in years?

But in truth, as they trudged along in the sporadic showers, Gumball every now and again attempting to strike up a conversation with his guest, she felt nothing, not the rain on her cheek or the warmth from her old friend's proximity. There was nothing in her heart, not even ice, because when she had shut down and lost it in the tree house earlier, everything had been drained from her body; all of the hurt that she held back even after it had become too much and shattered her, the anger and resentment that hid in the cracks, oozing toxic, and even the love in her heart had become nothing, falling away into the nothingness of her solitude...

Could the damage ever be undone to such a gentle flower? Glancing sideways at the statue of a girl, Gumball sincerely hopped so.

Destination reached at long last, the prince was rushed by his entourage of one, her face slackening in shock for the briefest of moments when she saw that her lord was not alone, but she was quick to treat the girl with due respect, curtsying, the occasional droplets that splattered her ignored, "Prince, you're back already! The treats were a success, I trust?"

Eyes cast at her feet, Skyla waved in return to the greeting, saying nothing, not even looking at the other woman.

For the briefest of moments, his face darkened drastically, and had SKyla not been there, or had she no ties to Marshall Lee, Gumball probably would have ranted on about the situation for a good minute and a half, if not longer, "They would have been, if they hadn't been stolen of off the plate!" The plate, that he had forgotten at Fionna's...

Glancing sideways at the person to greet them, Skyla slowly put a name to the face, too dazed to hear what Gumball had said, "Peppermint Maid?" She chuckled, but it was dry, more of a motion that an feeling, "I never thought I would see you again."

Hearing the girl's voice, Peppermint Maid realized instantly who she was, "Princess Skyla! In all my years, I never thought that I would see you again! I'm glad to hear that your father-"

"I'm not back in daddy's good graces," scoffing, she shook her head, being prickly but not scathing just yet, "Nor will I ever be."

Jumping into the conversation before it could turn south, or rather turn her demeanor even further so, Gumball was hasty to wrap his arm around the unexpecting female, his other hand spread out wide towards the rest of the kingdom so that his maid would hopefully get the hint to drop the subject, "Skyla is my guest."

Knowing what the prince meant, that no further questions were to be asked, that this young lady was not a royal in any sense of the word but merely a humble guest, not unlike Fionna would be, Peppermint Maid curtsied once more, "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss."

"Look," Skyla turned towards Gumball, her eye meeting his for the first time since they left Fionna's fortress, "I don't want to be an inconvenience for anyone, more than my existence already is, so if this is going to cause any problems, I can just leave now."

Moving quicker than lightening, he stood between her and her way to the front gate, carefully observing her like he would watch a loaf of bread in the oven, positive to be right on top of it least it burn, "Are you afraid that this is going to be a problem for me, or are you trying to run away, back to all of your problems and unhealthy comforts?"

"No!" She shook her head vehemently, trying to deny what feelings were bubbling at the surface of her stone facade, but the strength in his eyes was just too intense to lie to, "Yes."

Opening his umbrella once more as the final shower came, he sighed, but was glad that she was being honest with him, so he held it not over his own head, but over Skyla's. Taking her hand in his, he led her back to the castle, giving Peppermint Maid a few orders to prepare a room for Skyla, a hot meal, and if she was up for it later, a warm bath for the lady. He smiled sweetly at her departing form, happy to have company that wasn't the same he had every other night, not that they weren't without their entertaining moments.

Pulling her along the clean, well-lit hallyways, Gumball showed her into the castle, motioning at some of the things that have changed since her last visit, such as the room that used to be his parents now being what he called a 'living museum', which wasn't as creepy as it sounded, and drawing attention to the fact that the kitchen had been remodeled two years ago. She wasn't in the mood for the tour, as abridged as it was, so he didn't linger.

Quickly, he stopped just outside of the hallway that had lead to his room, if she recalled correctly, and he pointed her at a door at the far end, closest to them, "I thought it might have been too painful for you to use your old room, so I decided to give you a new one, if that's alright?'

"Really?" That was very considerate of him, almost suspiciously so, and the fact that he had chosen a place so close to his own private chamber only did more to give her pause, but she was in no position to be choosy, and she knew it.

"So," Rocking back and forth on his heels for a moment, he looked at her sideways, "Do you want to get dressed for dinner, or...?"

Tilting her head at him, curious to know if his pause had been a silent question about his real intentions for her, or if it was his awkward way of breaking protocol and inquiring if she just wanted to eat, "You don't speak to girls often, do you?"

Understanding lit his face, after she had given him a moment for it to dawn, "Oh! No, I wasn't asking..." He blushed, "I just thought that you might want a good meal. I know that cooking helps me feel better, so I thought that maybe eating something would help you."

"Very astute. But," although she wasn't so much in the mood for talking, Skyla figured that this could be a good chance to test him, to see just how far he was willing to go for this charade, "why don't we make our own meal? It's a good chance for us to catch up, and besides, it will be just as long as changing into a dress that I don't even have anyways."

Were that the point, he might have informed her that he would gladly loan her as many things to wear as she would possibly need, but even Prince Gumball could see that the wounded creature was testing to see if she could trust him or not, "...So what's on the menu?"

Xergiok would have wanted some goblin Ham, but Skyla wasn't Xergiok, and she knew what she wanted to eat, assuming that she could eat anything at the moment, "Spaghetti?"

"You do remember that spaghetti is my favorite food, don't you?" He looked at her, pleasantly surprised that she could remember something about their time together.

Zipping her vest up in place of rolling her non-existent sleeves up, Skyla smiled at him, but it was crooked, and only half sincere, her psyche too damaged and fragile to be genuine at the moment, "I do."

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** Wow! So worth it to bump up the rating on this! Plus, now I've got some creative freedoms now that I'm not bogged-down by making this fit a T. No, I haven't read those books - the title of this chapter is more inspired by the _'Short Graybles'_ thingy that they do.


	10. Partake

Orange, but more of a softer, burnt sherbet orange than a burn-your-eyes-out florescent, her skin shimmered with a low heat, cheeks tinting with a darker tone, Flame Princess blushed as Finn took her hand (naturally coated in protective materials) in his, helping her to aim at a particularly well-thrown disk. More than the proximity, she could feel it deep inside, her heart pounding with excitement, but she knew that it had nothing to do with the the physical exercise or the fact that there were curious eyes watching them...

It was because of Finn. He didn't always understand her or her love for carnage and destruction, nor did they do things the same way, but every time he was around her, she could feel her knees grow weak and quake, her palms sweat with a molten lava-like substance, and most importantly, he made her feel different – when she was with Finn, it felt like they were the only two beings alive, the world a long string before their fire...

Was the feeling in her chest what they called love...?

Her cousin probably would have said so (not without a certain kind of smirk on his scarred face and thought of a specific vampire in his heart), but Skyler was... Gone? Pausing in her task and mental musings, Flame Princess lowered her glowing fists, looking around uncertainly at the surrounding areas. Not seeing right away that she had become distracted, Finn frowned when the disk did not go BOOM! and rain down over their heads in a magical fall of melted plastic and specks of her beautiful embers.

"FP?" He inquired, looking back at her.

Hastily returning her gaze to her boyfriend, she made a snap decision, realizing what her cousin must have been doing for them, that he left to leave them alone so they could be private, not telling her because he thought that she would feel responsible for him, thus making her 'blow a fuse'. No doubt knowing her so well as he did, Skyler must have come to the conclusion that five minutes of her fiery ire would be much less miserable than five seconds of her fizzing disappointment, so he slipped away while they were busy...

She really owed him one...

**Chapter Ten: Partake**

Throwing the turquoise-toned book back into the drawer with enough force to make the entire wooden structure shake, not caring if - possibly even hoping for the chance that she would discover this violation of seemingly one-sided trust - she figured out that he had been there unsupervised in her room or not, Marshall Lee slammed the dresser drawer closed, causing some of the ruffled papers to stick between the sliding mechanism, therefore causing it to jam. Turning away from the boundless volumes of betrayal, fuming mad - and quite frankly hurt - about what he had read in that lyric book, the Vampire King was suddenly very glad that she had not been there, because he was uncertain about how he would have reacted to her; if he would have played it cool like it didn't bother him, gradually guilting her into a teary, heartfelt confession, or if he would have just lashed out at her on the spot, not a thought in his mind about their obvious differences in strength or sex...

How could Skyla have felt that way? And even worse, how could she - after all of the years and everything they had done together (even as recently as that morning) - have still maintained a secret crush on the spoiled, cowardly, snobby likes of Gumball?! He understood that they used to 'date' or whatever, hence some of the problems her parents originally had with him, but if there was even a small part of her that could do the impossible and like a stuck-up wad like that, then how in the world, or better yet why, remain with him in his dark little world of excess, rock, and lust? B wasn't about any of that stuff, only having a fondness for lame things like baking, and until finding this side of the girl he understood so well, he thought that she had none of that in her...

So why? She easily could have given Gumball everything she had instead of him, so why bother going through this life-long charade? He had been the first to know her in that way, not Gumball, and he had gladly partaken in her fruit, even still recalling the way that they had both reveled in the delicious shedding of her innocence, the sapping of her virginity. Skyla was his... not toy per say, but that was the best description he could give her, and personally, he felt that there was no need to share her with anyone else, let alone that pampered prince, so naturally he figured that there was no reason for him to be anywhere near her...

Had the sudden shock of this upset not been so upsetting and shocking, he might have asked himself when they would have had time for this kind of affair, but as it was, the counter-argument did not cross his mind.

Closing his eyes to room full of Sky, the wounded and confused vampire boy leaned against the wall, sliding down the cool surface, elbows pressing into his knees as he thought. He thought about them, about the past several years of living together, about how they met, about his own life. They had been so close, hadn't they? Before this written, documented betrayal he had never second-guessed anything involving the light being, but now, having witnessed her feelings in her own hand, nothing looked the same to him, every smile transforming into a snarl, every secret a lie to get closer to him...

But for what?

It had never been defined between them in a serious manner, their relationship, but he knew (and thought that she did too) that it hadn't all been just about the sex between them - there had been a genuine friendship between the vampire and elemental, complete with ups, downs, highs and lows, and countless in-betweens. From the first time they had met, he had seen a person that could be entertaining enough to hang around (the same could have been said of Gumball as well once upon a time), a little sliver of rebel that wouldn't bend to the pressure of some stupid crown or other outside source of need like the others... Skyla had been an excellent source of company over the years, and even more than that, she had become like the mother he never really had...

Disregarding the disturbing psychological ramifications of a mother/lover bond, what they had (or he assumed they had) had been as pure as it was allowed to be, given the circumstances, and it wasn't depraved, because they looked out for each other…..Strange as it sounded, largely due to the age difference, she had always been there for him, taking care of him when there had been no one else... And when need be, he had taken care of her…

Banished and forced into a lonely life worse than death - a life that, as an immortal he understood all too well - Skyla had been left alone, shunned by her family, and since her 'friends' had already abandoned her long before her parents served the metaphorical umbilical chord, it looked as if their friendship could have came to a sudden, tragic end. Even without the constant reminder of her missing eye, he could see that it had all weighed so heavily upon her young shoulders, and he didn't need need to have enhanced senses to know what she did at night... But unlike everyone else, even that punk that claimed to be her best friend friend and unofficial pseudo-fiance-to-be, he had stayed there by her side. He had seen so many deaths, so many lost friends, so many lives, just gone, and even though he pretended to not care about any of them, each cut him deeper than any mortal sword could. It wasn't that there was anything special about her that hadn't been there in anyone else before - he was just sick of it.

Wasn't it enough for him to know the snub of a blood bond? Sure sure, he got that his mother had a job to do, but was it really that terrible to look away for five seconds to tuck him in at night? Could the chaos not stand a moment of her inquiring to his scraped knee after he fell? Surely there must have been some time to spare for her son she claimed to love so much... Aside from whatever blockage she had about him, Marshall wondered if his neglect wasn't in part because of his father...

No, that was getting too off track...

But even sweet Simone had failed him, despite taking such care of a random child met by chance... Oh, Simone...

Being what he was, it was now abundantly clear that it was his lot to suffer, but was it really necessary to always come from the same source every single time? Sighing both literally and mentally, Marshall supposed that it was. No matter what hoops he had had to jump through, he had stayed there; Mother, demanding not-so-subtly that he take over the 'family business', Simone, losing her mind and inadvertently reversing the roles of their relationship, and now Skyla...

Maybe he should just swear all women out of his life for good...

Aggravated, he hit his head against the wall, banging it repeatedly until his eyes began to water from the dull, throbbing pain brought on by his monotonous motion. Blue, storming in swirling clouds swam before his eyes, taking the form of a shapely female, the gold of the sun wrapping in bending rays to recreate a lesser image of her flaxen waves, he saw the face of Fionna then, the little human warrior-girl, the one stable thing that still made sense in all of this turmoil... No doubt he would have to face these dilemmas with her as well, but for today, there was nothing but her and the warmth she brought to the stone that was his heart.

Sure, he could give up on the female race, but that could wait just a little bit longer...

There was still torment and resentment brewing inside of his chest, but after all he was the son a demon, so that really wasn't anything new for him, but the feelings that Fionna stirred inside... Those were, and as frightening as it was to even think about opening up to a girl he knew he would outlive, he knew that he couldn't dwell on this...

Although, that didn't mean that he couldn't stew a little bit longer in the bitter outrage fighting its way inside...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** Did I tell you guys how much you all rock? Seriously, so much love to you guys, and a huge round of applause to The Loved and Unloved, for all of the support you continue to give me and this story! Not to mention putting up with my (mostly) unavoidable delays... I want you all to know that I do still have an interest in this, but this is just being one of those chapters that I'm in no great rush to put out (hence me rewriting parts of it about fifty different times)... But, I shall! Ok, maybe that was the case when I started this one, but after deciding to push back the plot a little bit, it really clicked for me (besides the end)! Oh, and here's the debut of the title page! Thing freaking took me forever (like two months), but I hope its worth it! Let me know what you think of this story and the new cover, yeah?

Oh, and the line about shock and upset is not a lack of creative writing but a nod to a movie about six men and one woman throwing red balls for money ;)

Oh, and getting back to the whole "I'm still working on this" thing, I am, but at the moment, besides almost no computer time, I'm going to be looking into my Castlevania fic (and maybe some others), just so you all know.


	11. Hey Good Looking, Whatcha Cooking?

Grabbing the bowels from their respective places in the cabinets and counters, Gumball set about lining them all up as Skyla went to the cutlery and pulled out a knife suitable for mincing, slicing, and dicing. When they were younger - and indeed not much had improved since then - she had been an abomination of the kitchen, burning pretty much anything she had prepared, but her skills with a knife were unparalleled; even today the prince still had difficulty chopping ingredients as finely as she could.

And yet he still paused to watch her as she examined the blades, worried that she might have it in her mind to cut something other than edibles, "Skyla?"

Noticing that she had been looking at the same knife for the last five seconds, more zoned out than contemplative, she shook her head at her old friend's gentle inquiry, "Sorry, I was just..."

Setting down the bag of flour on the counter, he went to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "As disappointing as it would be to miss out on your magical mincing abilities, I understand if your not up for it." Bowing her head in shameful understanding, he didn't want her to feel any worse than he was sure that she already did, so he proceeded to add, "But I could still use the company. Why don't you just sit back and let me worry about dinner?"

It wasn't his intentions, but it made her think of one of the last pleasant times they had interacted...

**Chapter Eleven: Hey Good Looking, Whatcha Cooking? **

Nothing could ever be as complicated or as tangled as what she had with Marshall, but Gumball's and Skyla's relationship hadn't exactly been linear either. There were mostly good times between them, times when they had been happy living the shadow-play their parents had created for them, but even then there was a part of her that was separate from the prince. But there was a larger part of her that had been - for a time at least - willing to set aside her personal feelings to try to do what was right for the kingdom.

And more than that, there was a sliver that wouldn't have minded terribly being the Queen of the Candy Kingdom... Gumball was good to her, more than she deserved, and even at a young age, she knew that she was lucky to have a friend like him. So it was only natural that there would have been some kind of a union between them.

Just before her feelings for Marshall traveled south, just around the time prince Gumball came to the conclusion that he wanted to marry Skyla, the children had had a small, intimate ceremony. It was overseen by PM and a handful of stuffed citizens, but apparently it had been 'quite touching' and easily 'something that would be remembered for life'. Obviously, it was not an official wedding.

But, she was dressed in white (toilet paper from the bathroom, as the proposal had been so sudden), and there was something there at the top of the aisle to marry the children - an ordinary kitchen timer. Set for less than five minutes, the kids swapped a peck on the cheek when it went off with its shrill warnings, taking in place of rings a small hand-made knapsack the other had made a day previously. It was a short incident that lasted but a few minutes, however the effect had remained for years...

Even when Gumball had confronted Skyla about her feelings for the Vampire King for the first time.

"I was looking for you." He stated simply at her figure, walking into her room with arms crossed firmly over his plumb-colored velvet-clad chest. It was highly irregular to meet this way, but propriety had gone out the window a long time ago.

Getting back from a late meeting with her other dear friend, Skyla had lied about her whereabouts while she gone, and she had failed to inform Gumball of that facy, which she could see now was a mistake, "I probably should have left you a note or something, saying I would be out, but someone could have found it. Besides, I knew you'd think of something to cover for me. You've been good at it in the past."

Stepping further into her room, he sighed, irritated that she was being so nonchalant (and yet the flattery was working nicely in her favor), "A note? You couldn't wait for five globbing minutes to tell me that you would be seeing _him_? It's nice to know he means so much that you would let me think you had been stolen or something."

"You don't have to worry about me... I know that Marshall would never force me to do anything I didn't want to do. Unlike some people I know." She shook her head, locking the window she had crawled in through not minutes ago.

There was nothing she was saying that he found even remotely comforting, "I don't have to worry about you? Is that really what you think?"

She shrugged, kicking off her boots and setting them at the foot of her bed, tracking mud over the powder blue carpet without a second look, "Well, you don't really, do you? Our parents arranged this whole thing, so how could we ever really love each other? Sure, we're good friends and get along, but that isn't love. That's just the groundwork for a lasting partnership."

Who was this girl?! Gumball could barely believe his ears, "Skyla, what are you talking about?! I thought that we..." He blushed, stuttering a bit as he gazed at her, "I mean, we're already..."

"What, married?" She raised an eyebrow, snorting at the memory of their wedding, cute as it was, "It was cute, but they really shouldn't have let us go on like that, thinking that we're seriously man and wife..."

"...Are you telling me that you don't like me at all...? Do you really love that Marshall Lee guy so much that you couldn't even try to see if you could like me too?" He looked as if he were about to cry, the hurt in his voice impossible to miss if she had tried.

That wasn't something she could really reply to, but she still tried, "Gumball..." Frowning, it was literally hurting her chest to look at the dejected look upon his normally chipper continence, "Of course I... I do really like Marshall... But you... " She sighed, sitting down at the edge of her bed, knocking over one of her boots, "It's not that simple."

Shaking his head, he disagreed, bending over and setting it right-side up for her when it was clear that she was not going to make a move to fix it, "It is - either you like me or you don't."

"You're my best friend, and I do love you like family... but he makes me feel things... Things I've never felt when I'm with you." Blushing, she shook her head, "Deep inside, I can feel it... A kind of tingle every time he's near, like a fire in my veins, but its more than that..." Feeling like she was still not making her point, she patted her bed, offering him a seat by her side, which he took, "Gummy bear, it's so amazing when I'm with him... You know that feeling you got the first time you walked into the kitchen? Well I feel that every time I see him, but it's as if it's intensified by a thousand."

Gumball understood her better than he let on, "I get it. You want to explode every second you're apart, and when you're together, it's as if everything slows down and speeds up at the same time. Being around him is like something you can't stop, even though you can tell that it's hurting you to be around him, and even though people are telling you to just let him be, that your addiction to him is like a slow poison, you feel like you would die without his presence. Every little thing he does is magic, every breath a gift, and you can't sleep, because that will mean another moment you loose in a life that only draws meaning from her existence." He caught himself a little late, "His existence."

For a moment all she could do was stare at him in awe, shocked that anyone could relate to how she felt, "Gumball..." Breaking into a wide smile that curled at the edges, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him as tightly as she could without it looking like a murder attempt, "You're the first person that gets it!"

And she didn't.

How could she not understand that he ached for her the same way she pined after Marshall Lee? As much as he wanted to bang his head against the wall after shaking her a few hundred times, he didn't, because even though he wanted to cry for her ignorance, he understood that she was too close to the situation to see clearly. Crazy as it may have sounded, he was under the belief that in matters of love, anyone could pick up on the signals that person-X was in love with with person-Y (and vice versa), and short of just laying it all out, persons X and Y would never figure it out on their own. X and Y weren't dumb or anything - they were just too close to the fire to see the spark.

Returning the princess' embrace with only so much enthusiasm, he couldn't look her directly in the eyes, or else he knew that everything would have been ruined, "We are married, after all."

Smiling once more, she grinned at him, seeing not the little boy she usually saw when looking at him but what an attractive man he was becoming. A man that was not only going to be a great ruler one day, but a man that was going to be a fantastic person. She saw that in a single glance, and her mouth fell a little, her heart catching as she realized he was still holding her in his arms. Was this really her friend? The same one that had grown up alongside her, sharing so much embarrassing history that no one else could possibly compete? It must have been, because he had that same look in his eyes...

The same look he he always had when he was looking at her...

"You've grown..." She whispered, not trusting herself to speak at normal volume, unsure if the fear was due to losing this moment and the illusion or something else, something more.

Smirking a little, validated that she could see him as more than some snot-nosed brat, he could feel them getting gradually closer to each other, neither moving to detter the inevitable, "You haven't."

There wasn't any time to retort that, or even to make a face, because before either of them knew what was happening, they were pressed so close together that it was impossible to breath, mouths locked together in a dance that neither knew. She might have been spending more time with Marshall than with her husband, but that didn't mean that the other man had tasted the young woman's glossed lips, shoving beyond the artificial cherry to the real treat underneath. Not yet. It was strange and completely unexpected, but somehow...

It didn't feel wrong...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** I was inspired to start on this chapter after reading The Loved and Unloved's "The Unknown Secrets". You rock, and that story is so powerful... I bow to you. Enough said. Maybe Skyla's acting a bit bitchy, but hey, you know what they say about teenage girls... And if not... Well, that's one of the things the internet is good for, I suppose.


	12. Whatever Comes Her Way

The light hitting her bunny ears was no longer bright and full of sun and singing plants but fading fast to a purple dusk. Sitting up in her sleeping bag, shoving it away as she wormed her way to the open air, Fionna was crestfallen to see that she had slept in so late. Sure, she had to wait for about this time to meet with Marshall Lee anyways, but now she wouldn't have any time to get ready for their date... Well, she was just going to have to make the time!

"Cake, BMO?" She called out to her roommates as she climbed out of bed, taking her hat from her head so she could fix the golden hairs that had fallen out of the snowy cover from her imaginary battles with rabid corn monsters, "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Looking up from Kompy's Kastle, stationed in the corner of the room so she would remember to wake her sister up for her date, Cake looked around in shock, having played way longer than she had meant too, eyes slightly rimmed from the intensity of her game play, "Oh, Fionna!"

Rolling her eyes, knowing how Cake got when she got into Kompy's Kastle for an extended period of time, the human girl rolled her hair up anew, hastily bringing the cap down over it so that nothing was peeking out. Going to the bathroom, Fionna washed her face and brushed her teeth.

Done with the girly hygiene stuff, the warrior-girl went back into the bedroom and walked to the closet, exclaiming in aggravation, "Urgh, I don't know which one to pick!"

It was Cake's turn to roll her eyes at her BFFF, knowing exactly what she was debating herself about, "Its a date! You don't need a sword!"

Even after the stuff with the fake Gumball and the Ice Queen, Cake still stuck by her previous position, although because of that Fionna was even more inclined to bring at least one blade along. Besides, hanging with Marshall was way way different than chilling out with Gumball, so there was a huge chance that they could do something that was actually fun. Looking once more at the rack of swords, practically hearing Marshall Lee's voice in her head saying "_nice rack_" as she selected one, Fionna chose the shortest of all of her slicing weapons.

A girl had to be prepared for what ever came her way...

**Chapter Twelve: Whatever Comes Her Way **

Looking at Gumball now, momentarily lost in the memory of their first kiss, Skyla closed her eyes and let the warm feeling of someone dear holding her overtake her mind, washing away the dull ache in her heart still. She could recall intimately the feeling of his hands as he so gently embraced her for the time, her own experimentally roaming his hard body, the pillow practically against her head as she leaned to the kitchen wall, head falling into it as they descended in a rain of fiery yet awkward teen passion. Leg falling into place by her own, his knee found a niche as it went as far up as it could go, grinding against her body. Growing warmer, their teen bodies were yearning for more, but for whatever reason, they had stopped, not instantly breaking apart...

"...getting hot." He was saying something about their dinner or the oven or something, but all she heard was that last part, ringing through her head as if she had been meant to daydream about the past at that particular time. "Skyla?" He looked at her, eyes wide with worry.

She shook her head, trying to clear away the sudden and intrusive thoughts clouding her mind, gnawing at her judgment, "Sorry, I was just..." She was hesitant to explain what she had been thinking of, but could not explain why, "...Thinking about you." She blushed, "I mean the first time we kissed."

Setting down the bowl he had just been mixing, Gumball went over to her side, taking in her face as it leaned against the wall, her leg as it spilled down the counter with disinterest, seeing the older, more experienced version of that same girl from their memories, "Skyla..."

Once more moved by a force they didn't understand, they found each other locked in each other's arms. Vaguely aware that they shouldn't be doing this, Gumball pulled her other leg down so that he could stand between her thighs, and Skyla felt herself pulling him closer while loosening his pants. No, they shouldn't do this... His hand ran up her thigh. No, she had Marshall, even though he wasn't really her's... Her hand slipped up his shirt, gliding over supple ripples that had only become more pronounced with time. No, it shouldn't be happening this way, because he desired more than a temporary merging... Even with all of those reasons and more bouncing around in their domes, it wasn't enough this time...

Grabbing on armful of the girl he's never truly forgotten, Gumball pulled her as close as he could, bringing her forward as they became one, holding her for a moment as his body savored the sensation of her eagerly trembling form. When he did finally move again, she was already sipping of the first dregs of cold realization; how could she do this to Marshall Lee, and let alone within the first few hours? She had no conclusive answers, and whatever rational part of her mind might have been left was quickly drowning in the rapture of getting reacquainted with the man she had always secretly thought she would marry... This was so wrong, but right now, she didn't need to be right, because for the first time in a long time, she could actually feel something, and it was something that was making her feel _very_ good...

"Take me away, make me forget..." Clinging to her lover's neck, Skyla unconsciously uttered something that had been gnawing at her for months now, "Please, let me feel something besides the pain..."

Gathering that whatever was happening in her personal life, Skyla was feeling very empty, "Then stay here, and let me take care of you..."

Did he really just say that?!

She didn't seem to mind him so much, if he really had just blown his largest secret, "I can't feel anything any more but the pain... He kills me more and more with every passing day. I don't want to stay with someone that will never notice me..."

So, was that that the most complicated 'yes' in history, or was that Skyla's broken way of saying that she was done with it all, that she had no place else to be, nothing better to do, so she might as well just give in to the next guy to look at her? Had Marshall Lee truly been as blind as to miss the fact that she was bleeding herself dry to please him, that soon she would have nothing left at all? Had he the strength to beat the sight into the vampire, Gumball gladly would have done so, but the candy prince knew that even his physic was nothing compared to the unnatural strength of the demon spawn...

So long as it meant that he would be able to keep her close and to keep her safe, it wasn't the worst thing in the world for her to think for the time being that she was lingering to kill time, to be his own plaything now. Skyla would think that she was only there to be loved in body only, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing for Prince Gumball, because from there it could grow into the kind of relationship he had always wanted with her...

Maybe it was wrong of her to do to her former best friend (or was he still her best friend?), but she had to do something to get over Marshall Lee! Being the closest person to her, wouldn't Gummy-Bear understand a move like this? This was survival, and if it meant using her body to distract her mind and heart from the pain, then so be it...

Hopefully at the end of it all, she would understand...

Hopefully at the end of it all, he would understand...

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Adventure Time, although the creation of Skyla and her male counter-part Skyler is all on me. The title is the legal property of Marilyn Manson/legal owners.

**A/N:** For those of you that have seen Pineapple Express, you should know what a BFFF is. For those of you not familiar with it, it stands for "Best Fucking Friends Forever". And boo, this chapter seems shorter than the rest! Well, at least this is getting an update within the year... Umm, if there was something else I wanted to say, I totally forgot it, so my apologies if it was important...


End file.
